Father has every Friday to Saturday with our children and then Friday to Sunday with them alternating weekends.

Father is currently in arrears of approx. $10000 and has essentially never paid support until a few months ago. He has brought a motion to reduce child support because he says he lost his job and wants support to be the minimum amount but he wants a increase in access.

Now he is asking for a increase in access to Friday to Sunday evenings every weekend.

Well you cannot use arrears or any financial issues asa means of leveraging access and that goes for both parents.

I doubt if it would be acceptable to you if he got every weekend, so just look at the week and see how you can split the time and it works best for the children. The. Make a counter offer on the access. But do not bring the arrears into the conversation.

Child support is based on income. So,is he likely to get another job anytime soon. Is he trying, can you his usual income inputed on him for purposes of calculating CS. Did he get severance? All things you will need to figure out to access the income and CS changes.

But they are not to be part of the access discussion. So I have been informed seceral times on this forum. Good to know, as the judge would not likely appreciate that type of thinking.

So he wants to have all weekend every weekend with the kids? That doesn't sound right - he gets all the fun time and Mom gets all the school nights? What about a counter-offer where he would get another night during the week?

It sucks that he is not paying his support, but that's a completely different issue from access. By "the minimum amount", do you mean the amount corresponding to his income in the federal child support guidelines?

If so, that is what should be most important to you although "every weekend" does not seem very fair to anybody IMO, especially the kids. I agree with Stripes in this regard.

Your ex appears to be seeking 6/14 days on a 2-wk rotation. Work with that to start and try to achieve what you feel is best for the kids.

The scenario above would be 2% over the 40% threshold that will likely affect your CS moving forward. You may need to litigate / mediate / arbitrate a straight CS offset amount or NDI or Contino (CanLii.org for Contino for reference) of table amounts; as anything above 40% access equals "shared" parenting outside of "custody" according to section 9 of the Guidelines.

It should not, however, affect the CS arrears unless your ex takes you to court for an adjustment or a void of those arrears -- this has indeed happened to encourage "settlement in the best interests of the kids."

Not meaning to set off any alarm, but you have not disclosed any indication of your financial predicament to be a cause for concern.

CS And access are mutually exclusive. His being in arrears has NOTHING to do with the amount of time he sees his kids. He's not buying their time from you. Unless there is some reason why (neglect, abuse or distance between homes that would make it very difficult etc) he should not be around the kids, he should have them a minimum of half the time.

He wants more time with his kids, is capable and willing. Why should he not have them? would you accept the current arrangement in reverse if he offered it to you?